30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Charlie Gibson
W ater gives life and takes it away.
The dichotomy is one that intrigues me. Lake Hollow is ingrained in the very marrow of my bones. The iced over winters, the thawing spring. It’s a part of who I am.
I grew up hearing about the loss of my uncle Daniel. I’m his namesake… Charles Daniel. He became canonized as a saint in our family all due to losing his life in the lake. Immortalized, made bigger than life in his passing. I heard, when I was twelve, the truth of who Daniel was…
Did it make me curious? Propel me towards my fate?
Or would I have come this way full circle regardless?
I don’t question it anymore.
I firmly believe that some people are only here to shake things up. Like me.
To balance life out.
Cal, Wilder, Grady… my Remington. None of them were ever safe from me. Because they all belonged to me, mine to do with as I wished.
The best friend whose actions I studied from an early age and often copied.
The town outcast that I helped shape into the villain.
The enemy's closeted spawn who was always going to choose poorly.
And Remington. The unpredictable girl that lives life unapologetically. Am I able to feel love? Is this love I feel? Sure… as much as I believe someone is a part of me, belongs to me. She showed me facets of life I never considered. She could see what I wanted her to, perfectly. The way she envisioned me was exactly what I wanted to be seen as. The bird understander, the fixer, the protector.
They were all limited by a false sense of morality. They all let emotion carry them away from being logical. Precise. Determined.
Am I cursed?
Or am I the curse?
The first time with Mark Tullery was intentional.
He had to go. Not only did he get compared to Daniel too much, but he was also trying to get my friends to stay away from me. He should’ve kept his opinion to himself. It was his own fault.
“Charlie thinks we should quit the team because it takes up too much time,” Cal told him, shoving the bats into a bag, while Carter stood to the side tossing the baseball up in the air to catch it. He nods in agreement. No one can see me, standing at the side of the dugout.
Mark huffs out a disgusted laugh. “That kid is nothing but trouble. Mark my words, he’s going to drag both of you down. Get away from him if you know what’s good for you. Seriously.”
Cal and Carter exchange a concerned look, before Cal says, “That sounds kind of mean. Just because he doesn’t play baseball?”
“No. Because he’s a manipulative little brat.”
I’d already buried the medication I found in our boathouse fridge. Medication mom had been prescribed after her bout of bulimia that left her potassium deficient. I knew enough that it was untraceable after death. After watching his routine, I determined the best time to attack him was while he was on a run near Lakeside Park. I would take our rowboat in the middle of the night to dump his body near where Daniel had died.
There was a symmetry in it that appealed to me.
The second time was unintentional. Sort of.
I was only going to confront Mia. Tell her that I knew about her and my dad.
But instead of listening to me, she mocked me. Insulted me. “What are you talking about? You’re such a little psycho. You don’t think I’ve noticed the way you watch people? I told Carter that he needs to stay away from you. Wait until I tell your parents about this.” Spinning away from me, towards the parking lot of Lakeside Park, she laughs before looking over her shoulder at me. “Besides I’m not the person your dad is screwing.”
Calmly, I move silently through the dark behind Mia. The syringe in my pocket, my fingers moving over the cap. A jab to her neck. Untraceable… the tiny prick almost impossible to see. I take off her precious necklace, sliding that into the other pocket. “I’ll show you crazy,” I whisper near her ear, “All you had to do was listen, but you couldn’t even do that. This is your fault.”
The second time in the rowboat to dump someone in the lake, she wasn’t dead when she went in. I held her under, giving her a benediction of sorts, “Remember that you are water. Cry. Cleanse. Flow. Let Go.” I gave a final shove as her muscles locked up.
The third time felt like the universe was giving me a sign, I had dumped Mia’s necklace in the trash. Somehow the girl staying at The Bends found it. She was getting on my nerves anyway.
“Why are you being mean to me?” Tera asked following me from the Lodge down to the shore. Her flirting with Cal at the Funpark hadn’t worked, now she’s trying it with me. She’s become annoying. It’s her fault for not taking a hint.
Looking down the shoreline at the area of the last drownings, I decide to invite her for a nighttime swim. “Don’t tell anyone. No one.” She was dumb enough to listen.
I pulled her down using the necklace that time, then took it with me. It was harder without the meds to cause severe pain and respiratory distress with sensations of asphyxiation, panic, and terror.
The fourth time, with Jeremy, that wasn’t a plan, but he found the meds I’d buried in Lakeside Park. His dog dug it up. When I saw the lockbox in his work locker at the Funpark, he caught me taking it.
“Charlie?” He shut the locker room door. “Were you stealing that? Wait… wait.” His wheels slowly turn thinking about where the box had been buried. He’s already accused me of trying to knock him into the bumper boat pond.
He never noticed I’d managed to get one of the vials into my pocket before he caught me. On his evening swim, I stabbed him with the meds, jumping from underneath the old bridge behind him. It happened too fast for him to react.
The fifth time, with Susanna she had the necklace. Just like Tera she was bugging Cal.
“What are you doing here?” She’d been told Cal would meet her at Lakeside Park that night. It was over fast. The only issue was someone spotted the boat that night. But either the detectives discounted it, or they could not confirm it.
Either way, it was over. All she had to do was leave Cal alone, but she didn’t. It was her own fault.
Sara was the sixth. At first, I hadn’t meant to, but then face to face in the dark it came to me. Wilder and his visions wouldn’t be a problem for me anymore if she died after their argument.
“Oh great, just what I needed. What are you doing here?” I’d seen the nitwit from the telescope at the Funpark. I slipped away down the shore to where she was stomping her way to the bridge. To walk back home.
I started to respond but decided to attack her before I second guessed myself. She would’ve screamed otherwise. I choked her with the ugly necklace. I knew which dock had no lights that would illuminate it. Carried her to the end of the dock. Dumping her, she came up gasping. I held her under. ‘Remember that you are water. Cry. Cleanse. Flow. Let Go.’
She never should’ve associated with Wilder. Doing so made it impossible to save her.
Then there was our sweet Katie.
The last thing I wanted was to take her away from the world, but she couldn’t be reasoned with.
“Charlie, I have to tell mom and dad. Just tell them it was an accident. You-you didn’t mean to hurt her. Right? You didn’t mean it.”
I shake my head at her. Not in response to her question, but over her betrayal. I’m her big brother, she looks up to me, loves me.
I had the meds back from Jeremy’s locker. After giving her a lethal dose of the potassium chloride, she went more quickly. No struggle in the water necessary.
That one messed with me. I’d contemplated letting Mitchell go, but he still believes in me.
His call about Carlotta Marlow talking to him about the investigation she was doing on her own into the drownings, it was clear what needed to happen. It was high time to call her out over the affair she was having with my father, the baby that was never Daniel’s but my dad’s.
Did they think I never heard the closed-door arguments? The loon pin found of Carlotta’s in my parent’s bed, the notes between them locked in the drawer at the bottom of her dresser? The way the strain made mom sick… vomitting until she needed to get shots of potassium chloride?
Carlotta Marlow deserved her end, that fall should’ve killed her. Instead, she held on uselessly for weeks, making Mitchell suffer. I was ready to be done with them both by the time she passed. I was worried for him.
Oh, Katie. Your loss made me never want to send anyone into a watery grave again.
Until Remi.